Palme D'or Winner To Open 26th European Film Festival Malaysia Featuring 20 Films

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Romanian film Fjord is set to open the 26th European Film Festival Malaysia (EUFF) in Kuala Lumpur this month.

The film, winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is one of 20 from 20 countries that will be screened at TGV Pavilion Kuala Lumpur from Nov 26 to Dec 13.

EUFF brings together 17 European Union (EU) member states along with Norway, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

Ambassador of the EU to Malaysia Rafael Daerr said the EU looks forward to sharing these stories with Malaysian audiences and further strengthening cultural ties and mutual understanding between Europe and Malaysia.

He said the collaboration between EU member states and their partners from Norway, Switzerland, and Ukraine embodies the EU's ‘United in Diversity’ motto and celebrates Europe’s rich cultures and creative voices in the universal language of cinema.

EUFF festival director Yu Ern Chia thanked the participating filmmakers, noting that many of the films arrive with cinema’s highest honours.

She said althought these are European stories, Malaysian audiences will find their own questions in them.

“What moved us most was how, placed side by side, they (the films) began to speak to one another,” she said.

“Come for the names you know, but keep an open mind for the ones you do not. The film you never expected to love may be the one that stays with you,” she said in the statement.

The 26th EUFF is presented by the Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia and Malaysian film production company Blackflag. This year is the first of a four-year collaboration that will carry the festival through to 2029.

Under this year's theme ATLAS, the programme maps contemporary Europe through the films that defined the past year on the international circuit, with eight having premiered at Cannes and three having competed for the Golden Lion in Venice.

Representing Romania, Fjord by Cristian Mungiu stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a Romanian family whose conservative faith and way of raising their children come under the scrutiny of the authorities after they settle in Norway.

Other prominent films include Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2025 and six European Film Awards, including Best European Film, before becoming the first Norwegian film to win the Academy Award for Best International Feature.

Representing Italy is La Grazia, which won Toni Servillo the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his role as an Italian president weighing two final pardons, while Silent Friend starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux, represents Germany.

Also on the list is Young Mothers (Belgium) by two-time Palme d'Or laureates Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, which won Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2025.

Other films are Orphan (Hungary), Parallel Tales (France), The Beloved (Spain), Everytime (Austria), The Guest (Denmark), Aontas (Ireland), No Ghosts on Good Street (Poland), The Quiet Beekeeper (Sweden), U Are The Universe (Ukraine), A Light That Never Goes Out (Finland), Reedland (the Netherlands), Waves (Czechia), Promise, I'll Be Fine (Slovakia), and The Diary of Paulina P. (Croatia).

The festival will close with Pierre Monnard's Hello Betty from Switzerland, the story of copywriter Emmi Creola who in 1956 invented Betty Bossi, a fictional cook so convincing that much of the country believed she was real.

Tickets for EUFF are priced at RM8 and are available at TGV ticketing kiosks, on tgv.com.my, and through the TGV mobile app.

-- BERNAMA